HELP! My homeschool daughter is reading too much!!!
Homeschooling mothers can have panic attacks about many things. This mom worried that her daughter was reading too much.... and her math book was too easy. Sure these are nice problems to have, but it can still be stressful! Here is what I suggested.
>>>Is there any reason I should have her stop reading so much? She is not avoiding any other assignments. I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something.<<<
Hi Kelley,
It sounds like your daughter would be a PERFECT fit for Sonlight! My kids were like that, reading like crazy. The nice thing about SL is that it exposes the kids to a LOT of different kinds of books to read. I mean, I don't think my kids would have naturally picked up some of the books on our SL schedule, but once they did they loved the books. That really helped us, because then I could assign more books from the same author. For example, once they read ONE of the Little House books, I had them read the WHOLE series. In high school, when they read ONE Agatha Christie book, they read about 20 of them for fun. Sonlight is just GREAT that way.
Things to look out for? I notice that my son had some problems with pronunciation. Because he was advanced in reading, he would see words in print LONG before he ever said them aloud, or heard us say them aloud. My Alex, the economist, even said the WORD economist wrong for the longest time, because he'd read so much about them before he learned how to say the word. My advice for that is to make sure you read aloud every day, so that you come across a varied vocabulary. That should help.
The other problem we had was that even though my kids COULD read a variety of books, and WANTED to read a variety of books, some of the books were just not appropriate for a kid their age. That was a very difficult situation to handle, because even though they liked to read a lot every day, I didn't have the time to do that as well. I did pre-read all the books that I assigned for school. I didn't pre-read all the books from the same author, though. Be careful of assigning books that are too mature in content level. Get the book by Jim Trelease, called the Read Aloud Handbook. It helped us choose books as well.
>>>So far she isn't having problems with Saxon math but I may have her in too easy of a book. I picked the one that corresponded to her ps grade level.<<<
We started homeschooling when my kids were in 3rd and 5th grades, and I picked a grade level math book for them as well. I quickly realized that my youngest was pretty bored. You can easily determine if it is too easy for her. Just give her a TEST from the book each day. As long as she passes the tests with, say, 90% or better, then move her along to the next test. Remember that your job is to make sure she learns. You do not have to make sure you TEACH it. If she already knows it, move forward. Pretest her in the book, and start teaching the concepts once she gets below a 90% on something. A couple of years, my son was able to do 2 math books in a year doing it that way.
I graduated both my boys after homeschooling for 8 years. We used Sonlight for 5 of those years. I hope that helps!
Blessings,
Lee
>>>Is there any reason I should have her stop reading so much? She is not avoiding any other assignments. I just want to make sure I am not overlooking something.<<<
Hi Kelley,
It sounds like your daughter would be a PERFECT fit for Sonlight! My kids were like that, reading like crazy. The nice thing about SL is that it exposes the kids to a LOT of different kinds of books to read. I mean, I don't think my kids would have naturally picked up some of the books on our SL schedule, but once they did they loved the books. That really helped us, because then I could assign more books from the same author. For example, once they read ONE of the Little House books, I had them read the WHOLE series. In high school, when they read ONE Agatha Christie book, they read about 20 of them for fun. Sonlight is just GREAT that way.
Things to look out for? I notice that my son had some problems with pronunciation. Because he was advanced in reading, he would see words in print LONG before he ever said them aloud, or heard us say them aloud. My Alex, the economist, even said the WORD economist wrong for the longest time, because he'd read so much about them before he learned how to say the word. My advice for that is to make sure you read aloud every day, so that you come across a varied vocabulary. That should help.
The other problem we had was that even though my kids COULD read a variety of books, and WANTED to read a variety of books, some of the books were just not appropriate for a kid their age. That was a very difficult situation to handle, because even though they liked to read a lot every day, I didn't have the time to do that as well. I did pre-read all the books that I assigned for school. I didn't pre-read all the books from the same author, though. Be careful of assigning books that are too mature in content level. Get the book by Jim Trelease, called the Read Aloud Handbook. It helped us choose books as well.
>>>So far she isn't having problems with Saxon math but I may have her in too easy of a book. I picked the one that corresponded to her ps grade level.<<<
We started homeschooling when my kids were in 3rd and 5th grades, and I picked a grade level math book for them as well. I quickly realized that my youngest was pretty bored. You can easily determine if it is too easy for her. Just give her a TEST from the book each day. As long as she passes the tests with, say, 90% or better, then move her along to the next test. Remember that your job is to make sure she learns. You do not have to make sure you TEACH it. If she already knows it, move forward. Pretest her in the book, and start teaching the concepts once she gets below a 90% on something. A couple of years, my son was able to do 2 math books in a year doing it that way.
I graduated both my boys after homeschooling for 8 years. We used Sonlight for 5 of those years. I hope that helps!
Blessings,
Lee
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